New Year’s eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights. ~Hamilton Wright Mabie
I said this about last year, but I can’t believe I’m already looking back on 2009. It was another fast year and another year full of knitting.
I finished a sweater this year:
Sadly, I haven’t worn it because the yarn grew a lot and it’s just too big. At some point I plan on ripping it out and using the yarn for a different sweater. (I adore this shade of green.)
I knit a blanket for a friend’s baby:
I knit a dog walking hat for a friend’s husband:
2009 was mostly the year of socks. I spent the first half of the year unemployed and I spent most of that time (when I wasn’t job hunting) knitting socks:
I have more socks on the needles.
This pair is almost finished:
I’m anxious to finish these socks because I love the color:
I’m also anxious to finish these socks because I love this pattern and this yarn:
I started this scarf and hope to finish it by next winter (I’m back to being obsessed with socks so it’s taken a back seat):
I started out the new year with my 365 project and the intent to document the year by posting one picture every day. I lasted 139 days before my camera broke. When the camera was repaired I had lost interest in the project. So, 2009 taught me that I’m not as interested in photography as I thought I was. I do like to take pictures, but (if forced to make a choice) I would rather do other things.
When I did my end-of-the-year post on 12/31/08, I had one big wish for 2009: to get through the year without any of my pets dying. I’m happy to say that my wish came true.
Sadie has lost 18 lbs. since I adopted her and has discovered that she loves to run:
Kishka spent a lot of time this year doing the things that she loves most.
Rolling in the grass:
Keeping the tennis ball away from Sadie:
And digging holes (note the dirty nose):
What did Romeo do this year? He bossed around his sisters and surveyed his kingdom.
I’ll end this post (and this year) with one of my very favorite pictures. It was taken in the car on the way home from the dog park. They were both exhausted.
If you think dogs can’t count, try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket and then giving Fido only two of them. ~ Phil Pastoret
Knitting Math
PLUS
EQUALS
Continuing on:
PLUS
EQUALS
Never let the demands of tomorrow interfere with the pleasures and excitement of today. ~ Meredith Willson, The Music Man
My camera arrived home last week and I immediately broke in the new lens by (what else?) taking pictures of the dogs:
Shortly after the camera returned the dogs and I went hiking. Here are my favorite pictures (and video) from that trip:
Have you ever tried to pose a dog in front of a waterfall? It’s quite amusing (“Sit. Stay. Look pretty. Good girl. No, stay. Don’t look at the waterfall. Good girl. Stay there. Look at me. Good girl”).
The entire photo/video set is here.
I have been on a sock knitting kick for months now and lately I’ve stopped being monogamous and have been spreading my sock love around. (I guess you could say I’m a sock knitting hussy.)
These three pairs of socks are being knit from yarn that I dyed:
This pair is from a sock blank I received in a swap:
I am test knitting this pattern for the designer (isn’t it fantastic?):
I also have a blanket freshly on the needles:
I was absolutely overwhelmed and a little gobsmacked at the comments and emails that encouraged me to continue with my photo-a-day project. Thank you so much for your kind words and the inspiration to continue. I really appreciate it and you almost talked me into continuing the project. However, I have decided not to continue the project.
I enjoyed taking a lot of photos and I did learn a lot in the short time that I took a picture every day. However, the bottom line is that the commitment the project required ended up sucking a lot of fun out of both blogging and photography. I had many days where I happily snapped a ton of pictures. But, I also had more than a few days where I absolutely didn’t feel like taking a single picture and did not enjoy the process at all.
The project did teach me something, though. Before the project I always had pictures I wanted to toss up on the blog, but I felt like if I posted a picture I needed to do a whole blog post about it and sometimes I just don’t feel like talking (seriously). This project taught me that I can just post a picture and people will find it interesting.
So, moving forward I will sometimes do a ‘proper’ blog post and sometimes I’ll just post pictures that I’ve taken.
But, before we move forward, I’m going to look back for a moment. I went through all of my photos of the day and these are my favorites:
